Saturday, September 23, 2006

So How's That "Enforcement" Thingie Workin'?

Mayor Lou Barletta of Hazleton, Pa., estimates that as “many as half” of the estimated 10,000 Hispanics who were living in Hazleton when it passed an ordinance in July to punish those who hire or house illegal aliens have since left the city.

“We’ve been notified by some 30 other cities in the United States that are waiting to process such ordinances,” he said yesterday in an interview.

In Valley Park, Mo., 20 immigrant families disappeared virtually overnight from a high-crime apartment complex, and at least dozens quickly left Riverside, N.J., this summer when those two small towns passed laws cracking down on employers who hire illegal aliens and landlords who rent to them.